Review/Recap Of Star Trek: TNG S2 Theater Event + Watch S2 Gag Reel

On Thursday night Star Trek fans across the United States attended the Next Generation Second Season Blu-Ray Event. While watching the initial appearance of the Borg on the big screen was a neat experience, the real treat of the evening was seeing, for the first time, the expanded edition of the classic TNG episode "The Measure of a Man". The evening’s highlights follow the cut..

Star Trek Season 2 Event + Watch Season 2 Gag Reel

As the screen darkened in multi-plexes across the US, two of Star Trek’s defining episodes hit the big screen, together with a selection of special features from the forthcoming release of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s second season on Blu-Ray disk.

The evening’s first presentation looked at the state of the Star Trek franchise at the conclusion of the first season of TNG, and included anecdotes both funny and disheartening. While Patrick Stewart was able to share the surprise of his first convention appearance, Gates McFadden candidly discusses the fact that she was fired from TNG for being vocal about sexism in the scripts.

Following an introduction by Michael and Denise Okuda, the first episode to roll was “Q Who”, the Rob Bowman helmed episode which introduces the Borg to the Star Trek universe. True to the promise, the visuals were much cleaner and vivid than their standard definition counterparts, and nowhere was this felt more than with the visuals of the Borg ship. From internal shots to external damage, the hi-def treatment really made this episode shine.

Between episodes, fans were treated to an outtake reel which left at least the crowd in Plainfield, Indiana in stitches. Picard snuggling in a blanket, odd occurrences at the tactical station, and flubbed lines a-plenty ensured that not a single butt left the seats.

A candid reunion interview among the cast members was funny, heartwarming, and at times genuinely tear-jerking. Brent Spiner relates in the interview how he was approached by a fan at a convention, where she told him that Data was something of a ‘poster boy’ for those living with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Watch the Gag Reel For Season 2

Review of Measure of a Man Extended

Unquestionably, the highlight of the night was the screening of the extended cut of “The Measure of a Man”, one of the defining episodes, not just of The Next Generation, but of all the Star Trek series.

The episode itself ran about 15 minutes longer than a standard televised episode, and the additions broadly fell into three categories – the good, the lousy, and the superb.

After a take-it or leave-it addition of backstory between Admiral Nakamura (where we learn that one of Picard’s first assignments was to the old USS Reliant), several good moments were parsed into the show – Data and LaForge discuss what they would do if they left Starfleet, and Riker and Troi debate Data’s metaphysical status honestly.

A painful shot of Pulaski explaining why she did not get Data a going away gift was bad enough, but in spite of the coolness factor of seeing Picard fencing, his interaction with a petulant Riker who had not in any way been challenged by Picard concerning the case was utterly cringeworthy.

The superb highlights of the night, however, included a quiet sit-down between Picard and Data where the two talk legal strategy, a rather nasty party-interruption on the part of Commander Maddox, and the best addition of all, an expanded conversation between Data and Riker in the wake of the court’s ruling.

The expansion of “The Measure of a Man” adds positively to the episode and to Trek lore. While the perfect version would be a middling between the broadcast and expanded versions, I’ll take the expanded cut, in spite of the two dragging additions, as my definitive version of this episode.

A preview of Season 3 wrapped up the evening, featuring looks at “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”. We can only hope that Fathom Events will host yet another national Trek party, so that we can see these masterful episodes on the big screen.

Some theaters noted significant technical problems during the screening. In fact, at least one AMC location (Indianapolis South) had to cancel entirely and reschedule for next Thursday night at 7 PM. If your theater had issues or canceled the program, you may wish to call the box office to see if it will be rescheduled.

Star Trek: TNG Season 2 Blu-ray arrives December 4 – Pre-order now

You can pre-order the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation from Amazon. They have lowered the price to $64.99. Remember that your final price will be their lowest pre-release date price.

Season 2 finally gave us evidence of what the series could do.
Thank goodness it kept getting better.

December 3, 2012 7:31 pm

Chris Freeman

Totally fun event. It’s so much fun to watch TNG with a big group of people. Even the bad jokes and awkward moments get a laugh from the audience because the characters are so endearing. I agree with all the sentiments in the review here. I’ll report some technical problems in Portland, OR. The projection in general was fuzzy with horizontal lines slowly creeping up the screen – sort of similar to an old antenna tv set. It also skipped about 5 minutes in “Q Who” – the section where Q says he wants to join the crew and flings them across the galaxy (the manager later came out and said that skip was in the recording they received from Fathom, so there was nothing they could do, and he handed out free movie vouchers after the showing). The projection also froze then crashed about 30 seconds into the Season 3 trailer at the end. I’ve been to a few Fathom events and there always seems to be some technical glitches. Seeing the episodes also confirmed the issues with the effects that the nerds have been ranting about on the internet: blurry shuttlecraft, squished Enterprise, inconsistent grain in the live-action footage, inch marks instead of quotes around the episode title. The shot of the 2-foot model shooting at the Borg ship was short enough that the model didn’t look too bad (compared to viewing a still online where you can really stare at that tiny model). I had a great… Read more »

December 3, 2012 8:13 pm

Red Dead Ryan

Wait….Picard served on the Reliant? I’ll assume that it was a different Reliant than the one Khan commandeered, as that ship was destroyed at the end of TWOK.

#5, just received my set yesterday from Paramount, and the blooper is just over 10 minutes long. And hilarious!

December 4, 2012 12:20 am

Michael heintz

I’ve read now 2 reviews of STTNG season 2 on bluray. The remastering was NOT done by CBS and farmed out. The results were far less than season 1’s excellent work. Season 3, CBS is back doing the job. If they rotate every other season and continue to produce less than worthy results…why would CBS do this? Time, money? Why go through this major undertaking only to eek out releases that don’t truly justify fans re- buying the series on bluray over their already owned dvd sets? I’m sure the opinions/complaints will soon get on Amazon once people view the 2nd rate work. And after the disc replacement fiasco on season 1, why would CBS let another company do this work, and NOT inspect and approve it before being mass produced to the public with quality below their own standards?

December 4, 2012 7:36 am

Michael Heintz

Bill Hunt/Digital Bits segment of his review:
In order to meet a demanding release schedule for the Blu-rays, the remastering work for Season Two was subcontracted to an outside post-production facility whose work simply doesn’t meet the high standard CBS Digital set on the Season One Blu-rays. That’s not to say the HD video presentation here is terrible by any means, but it does suffer in comparison to Season One. Many of the re-jiggered visual effects shots don’t have the same “wow” factor of the first season – they’re all too often plain looking and just haven’t been given the same careful attention to detail. In addition, many shots have had excessive grain reduction applied.
.

December 4, 2012 7:44 am

Michael Heintz

Twiddles review on Amazon of TNG S2: CONS: —— * poor shadow detail (uneven blacks, especially for recomposited f/x work – outer space is not dark gray, with Enterprise details being darker) – some of these take a moment to spot, but once you see it you’re not going to get around it * excessive noise and grain reduction, leading to a plastic look for the characters and a general blurry look. DO NOTE: Some scenes’ softness (e.g. some from “The Child”) are due to the pan and scan techniques used at the time (camera equipment), but if the camera is not moving and the image is soft and lacking detail, that’s a giveaway that excessive DNR was used. It depends on the scene in question… * inaccurate screen ratio: the aspect ratio is 1.35:1 and some scenes, including the Enterprise, disappear off the edge of the screen while the planet can be seen farther to the right. * poor compositing – in a couple of scenes, layers were put on backwards (e.g. shadow detail over the Enterprise hull) * poor color timing – one scene has an overly bright Borg cube, and the Enterprise warp nacelles are a bright turquoise (despite the reflection from the hull being the appropriate blue.) The bussard collectors are a purplish-red instead of pure red. Another scene has a shuttlecraft with bright turquoise warp nacelles as well. * poor f/x – CGI planets are often soft and blurry, and sometimes shadow detail and light… Read more »

It’s definitely worth checking out; there are numerous articles, interviews, and – best of all – screenshots. Including screenshots posted by others denoting what’s being said in customer reviews..

December 4, 2012 4:05 pm

Michael Heintz

Ok, I just read ALL of the reviews/comments, and most are bad..this one generally states most wrote:
It was a tough decision that I mulled over in my head for a week. I had hoped to have the complete TNG blu-ray set after buying all releases, but I just can’t do S2. It’s just that bad. Most of these reviews are speaking of the FX shots, the 4 ft model, and soft and blurry planets and star backgrounds.

December 4, 2012 5:09 pm

Trekboi

This is truely Pathetic.

What is the point of rushing a release- Who wants it on time if it is not done properly?

Just delay the releases & do it properly.
Star Trek fan’s are sophisticated & won’t tolerate sub-standsrd work so CBS will not profit from rushing the releases.